The Lone Tree

"Yeah..."
"Okay, I'll be a hunter, you two can be scouts. I've seen three members of Sunwood in my life so...." Silvermask tapped Polaris and Sunfire with her nose.

Polaris felt Silvermask's power run through him.
"Right!" he growled. "Let's go and take Viral down!" he padded further on into the territory.
"Thank you, Silvermask," Sunfire said, dipping her head slightly. "Is there anything else we should know before we go?"

Viral smirked when he heard their reckless determination. He looked up at the sky and was satisfied to see it black. As black as my wings, he thought smugly and powered his wings into the air.

Silvermask smiled.
"Another thing -when under disguise, your full power returns and you are stronger"

She looked up at the black sky. "Perfect for Viral to escape..."

Celeheit twitched and suddenly woke up. Reality smashed into her and she jolted up. "Wh-wha?" she gasped and looked around. Nobody. Her gaze stopped and focused on the Sunwood territory. The sky was so black, it looked like it was nighttime. She drew her breath in sharply and half limped, half dragged herself towards Sunwood.

Polaris looked over his shoulder. "Come on, we need to get a move on, or Viral's going to either attack us first, or escape." he barked.
"Right..." agreed Sunfire. "So I assume we just have to wonder around seemingly aimlessly, then?"

Celeheit found a mixture of scent trails and followed them. Curiosity pushed her onwards as she tracked down her so-called enemies.

Arcaii walked in, her eyes adjusting to the light. Something told her that she shouldn't be here. You're only here because you don't want to be enslaved, don't forget that, she scolded herself.
What does it matter? If my life ends, so will 3 more.
"They'll die anyways, even if I do live!" she snarled aloud, and took a step towords the rocks.

Shadow turned on his shadow seek.
"Virals up in the clouds Arcaii"

Silvermask looked back to see Shadow and Arcaii.
"Did you say that Viral's up there?"

Arcaii looked to the skies. She twitched her wing and felt a sense of foreboding. "I don't know whether..." She turned her head to look at some grass. "Nevermind."

Viral's fur stood up, as the static from the darkening clouds shot towards him. His ribs have gone worse, and he slowly felt his energy drain away. He winced as he stretched out his wings, and glided on a strong air current. Looking down, he thought he saw a few more wolves on the ground, but he wasn't sure if they were Sunwood or not. He spiralled downwards and glimpsed them. Definitely not Sunwood. Definitely loners. And Moonrivers again?!

Celeheit had an awful foreboding that something terrible is going to happen. She instinctively looked behind her and spotted something moving in the sky. She growled softly and scurried under the trees.

Silvermask narrowed her eyes.
"Shadow, somethings wrong"

Shadow blinked.
"Why me?"

((I could have a Sunwood wolf if you wanted me to, I don't mind. xD As long as you didn't mind me having three characters.))

Polaris sniffed the air. It was warm to his cold, grey nose. A soft breeze blew across his fur, but it was blowing in a strange, sideways drection, and it made him fell a strange sense of unease. "Smells like trouble." he remarked, dryly. "This dark sky... do you think this is Viral's doing, or what?" Polaris had gathered that Viral was evil, yet he did not know the full extent of his power. He had put himself on guard at all times, just in case of a surprise attack, but he really didn't know what to expect.
Sunfire regarded the newcomers with somewhat relief. She knew that they would need lots of help while fighting Viral. She said nothing, but stared up at the sky, half afraid, yet eager to get the battle over with.

Arcaii looked to the sky and narrowed her eyes. "Is that him?"

Of course it is! Viral grinned as he thought of an idea. He circled the wolves below him and pin-pointed the crowd of wolves. He adjusted his wing-beats so that he was hovering directly above them. With as little movement as possible, he spat out a gale of fast-working virus and waited to see the results.

Celeheit stared, shocked at Viral and his obvious madness. Her fur was getting clogged as it began to rain and she shivered. What should I do? she thought desperately.

Sunfire was sniffing the air cautiously, afraid in case Viral was there. Suddenly, she caught a quick scent of him when he unleashed the virus.
She turned frantically to Polaris, whom she was standing next to. "Quick! Polaris! Freeze the air above us!" she cried. "Viral's there!"
Polaris turned his head to the sky and howled at once and the air around him and Sunfire dropped to minus three degrees. Polaris growled. "That should kill the ones round us." he told Sunfire. Sunfire was confused.
"What do you mean, ones around us?" she asked.
"Viral sent something down from his position in the sky, though I don't know what." Polaris narrowed his eyes. "I smelt its scent - strange and sickly. Some kind of organism. The cold around us should keep us safe, but unfortunately I don't know if the others got affected badly."
Sunfire swallowed. She was shivering from the frigid air, and also slightly scared, though she did not show it. "If he can send things to kill us that we cannot see... he must be really powerful..." she muttered to herself. "I'm going to be more cautious than ever! The last attack was too close!"
"Hey, you others!" Polaris called. "Watch out! Viral's made a move!"

Arcaii dived, avoiding the virus. She got up and screamed, "OH HELL NO!" She lunged into the air and rose to his height. "You will not harm those wolves any more than you already have," she snarled, and dove at him, biting his wing and tearing into it.

Viral howled and smashed his claws onto her head. He was losing height rapidly and he eventually crashed into a tree. He caught hold of Arcaii's wing-bone and brought her down as well. He snarled at her and sank his poison coated fangs into her neck.

Celeheit snarled at Viral but stay put.

Arcaii broke free of him and bared her teeth, lunging. The top left fang was missing.

She crashed into him and threw him into another tree, making him lose his breath long enough to jump and claw at his stomach. She realized that she was willing to die fighting this wolf.

Viral knew he was weakening and did the only logical thing left. He fled. Like a coward. He punched out his wings to knock Arcaii's head away and barrel-rolled out of the tree and crashed onto the hard ground. He glimpsed Celeheit lurking behind the clump of trees and snarled at her. "Who's side are you on?" he hissed and took off into the sky.

"No one's." Celeheit murmured and contented herself by spying on Viral's enemies. She had to admit, they were strong and hard to defeat. Celeheit yawned and lay down in the damp soil to snooze for a while. She was terribly sleepy and her vision soon became blurry and her eyelids felt as if they weighed 10 tons...

"COME BACK HERE YOU DAMNDED COWARD!!" screamed Arcaii, after recovering. She started after him but felt a wing touch her side.

It was Wingspan.

"It's Ok, Arcaii," he said quietly. "You can fight him later. He's damaged enough that he can't get too far."

Arcaii swore so loudly that birds fled from the trees. Her ears pinned back, she snarled, "Coward."

Viral heard Arcaii's swearing scream. He hissed and quickly limped to Starcliff.

While this was happening, Silvermask and Shadow were linking there powers. They bagan to run after Viral. They stopped, metres away.

Time to see what they colould do...

Viral didn't notice Shadow and Silvermask chasing him. He took his time to slowly return home.

Celeheit slept on, hidden in the bushes.

From a high rock, a wolf sat watching what was going on down below.
"I wonder what they are doing in Sunwood territory?" she thought. Her thinking was interrupted when she noticed Viral flying off into the sky.
"Is that Viral?" she muttered to herself. "I guess I should find out what's happened. Those wolves aren't meant to be here, at any rate."
Being careful that the bells on her tail did not ring to alert the wolves below of her prescense, she flew after Viral, through the darkened sky.
~
"I don't think we should be letting that corrupted monster get away from us." Polaris snarled. "Judging by what we've seen, he's better off dead."
Sunfire sighed. "Fine then, let's just follow Silvermask and Shadow."
"Shadow?" Polaris asked. He hadn't seen Shadow before. He looked briefly at the wolf Sunfire pointed out at Shadow, before promptly losing interest. "Fine, whatever." he muttered. "Let's go before Viral as time to cross the whole stupid territory."
The two wolves spread their wings and took off after Silvermask and Shadow.